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While it is difficult to compare the quality of various units, it is certain that this brigade was among
the elite brigades of Lee's army.

Ed Bearss, the world's leading authority on the Civil War, noted that "few if any units in the Army of
Northern Virginia were more capable or terrible in battle as Kershaw's Brigade." Not only did the soldiers
of the brigade establish a first-rate combat record, but the history of the units that compose the brigade
is the longest of the war.

Several companies were formed as early as the first week of January 1861, four months before Fort Sumter.
The brigade existed until General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to General William T. Sherman at the
Bennett House on April 26th, 1865, over two weeks after Appomattox.

The brigade originally consisted of four South Carolina regiments, 2nd, 3rd, 7th and 8th, plus the 11th
North Carolina, 8th Louisiana, 30th Virginia Cavalry, Kemper's Virginia Battery and the 1st Company of the
Richmond Howitzers. They were commanded by Brigadier General Milledge Like Bonham.